Special Report: Qinghai-Tibet Railway

HOH XIL, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A passenger train bound for Tibet drove into Hoh Xil, China's largest area of uninhabited land but home to endangered Tibetan antelopes, Saturday, about 90 minutes after its departure from Golmud in Qinghai Province.

The train, coded "Qing 1", left Golmud station at around 11:05 a.m. and passed the tunnel of the Kunlun Mountains, a legendary range that was widely seen as unsurmountable, at 12:42 p.m. to enter the Hoh Xil.

The 45,000-square-km area is a natural habitat for critically-endangered Tibetan antelopes and wild horses at least 4,000 meters above sea level. Officials with the Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve Administration said the wild animals had become used to the railway before its opening on Saturday.

A first group of 67 pregnant antelopes from the eastern part of the reserve crossed Wubei bridge of the Qinghai-Tibet railway on May 16 to give birth in the hinterland, according to Gelai, head of Wudaoliang station in the Hoh Xil reserve.

About 1,000 antelopes have crossed the railway via special passages so far, Gelai said. "Tibetan antelopes started migrating earlier this year than the past few years. They're no longer scared of the human work and cross the railway with ease," said Cega, director of the reserve administration in Qinghai Province.

Environment protection topped China's agenda in its construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, which has 33 passages for animals.

The 1,956-kilometer-long Qinghai-Tibet railway is the world's highest and longest plateau railroad and also the first railway connecting the Tibet Autonomous Region with other parts of China. Enditem